


Stay With Me

by Ris116



Category: The Queen's Gambit (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:00:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28042815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ris116/pseuds/Ris116
Summary: For the first time, Beth has to take care of Harry.
Relationships: Harry Beltik & Beth Harmon
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Stay With Me

**Author's Note:**

> This is some fluffy smut.

Beth took a deep breath before walking up the stairs to Harry’s apartment and knocked on the door. Impatiently, she leaned over the railing to try to see through the living room window. She saw the faint glow of a television, but there was no sight of her friend. She considered using the key he had given her for emergencies.  
Would he consider this an emergency? She had stopped by the Kroger to pick up some groceries when a coworker of his asked if he was feeling ok. Harry had apparently called in sick for the rest his shifts this week. When she returned home, she called him but he did not pick up the phone.  
He might not even be home. Beth started back down the stairs to check to see if his car was in the parking lot. She quickly found the white Ford. His blue corduroy jacket sat on the backseat.  
Beth climbed the stairs again and dug her keys from her purse. She peered in through the window one last time before she slid the key into the door.  
“Harry, are you ok?” She called into the apartment. “I’m starting to worry.”  
It was dark except for the glow of the television screen. Reruns of The Twilight Zone played quietly in the otherwise silent room and a half drunk mug of black tea sat on the coffee table along with some mail. She poked her head into the small kitchen. Dishes sat in the sink, but there was no sign of Harry.  
“Harry?” Called Beth before throwing herself onto something hard under a blanket on the old grey couch.  
“That’s my leg.” croaked the man sized lump on couch. A mop of curly brown hair and tired blue eyes emerged from under the navy blue blanket.  
“You sound terrible.” She sat back down next to him.  
Harry pulled himself up to sit up against the armrest of the couch. His normally pale chest was covered in small pink bumps. He immediately started scratching when Beth slapped his hand away.  
“If you scratch them, you’ll leave scars.”she touched his forehead with the back of her hand. “And you have a fever. Do you have any Tylenol?”  
Before he could respond, Beth stood up to rummage through his bathroom cabinet. Tooth brush, a hair brush, face wash, pomade. She closed the door in frustration and went to look through the bedside table drawer. The Tylenol was there, next to a box of condoms.  
“You shouldn’t be here, Beth.” Harry called to her from the living room. “Chicken pox is really contagious.”  
Beth came from the small kitchen holding a glass of water and the pain relievers. She handed him the pills and laughed, “I grew up in an orphanage. I had chicken pox when I was a kid and they made the older girls take care of the little ones.”  
“I guess I didn’t.” He muttered, scratching a particularly pink patch on his leg. “I have no idea how I got it.”  
“Matt and Mike mentioned there was a small outbreak at UK a few weeks ago. So, probably from someone at school. Or some kid at the store.”  
Beth crossed the room to finally take off her jacket, hanging it by the door and kicking off her shoes in the process. She settled herself on the floor next to the couch, pushing discarded pajamas to the side. Harry had laid back down, stretching out on the couch and pulled the blanket back up to his chin. He turned to lay on his side, making a small sound of relief or pain in the process. Beth wasn’t sure.  
“So, how long has all this been going on?” She asked, leaning on her elbow against the cushions.  
“A few days. At first I thought it was a bug bite or something, but then by the afternoon I looked like this.” he pushed the blanket down to show Beth small patches of pink dots. They sparsely speckled his chest and stomach. He appeared to have very mild case. “I’ve been locked in here for the last few days.”  
Harry proceeded to aggressively scratch at his arms. She remembered how itchy and painful chicken pox blisters were from when she was a child. She thought that at least he didn’t have any on his face. A girl at Methuen had some near her eyes once and was blind after she recovered. She wouldn’t tell him that though.  
“So, what did they do at Methuen to help with the itching?” he asked breaking her train of thought.  
“An extra dose of tranquilizers.”  
Harry smiled at her. “I guess I’ll just suffer.”  
Beth wasn’t used to Harry being the one that needed to be cared for. She supposed that she’s seen him have a cold once or twice. He was never the one laid out on the couch in their boxers, napping in the middle of the day. Beth spent a countless number of days with her head in his lap, nauseous and headachy. After her trip to Russia, she had decided to stop taking the Librium. She insisted to herself on the plane ride back that she did not need to tranquilizers anymore. There was no instructions on the bottles that told you how to stop taking the pills. She remember that they just stopped giving them out at Methuen. She never anticipated the withdrawal would be so terrible.  
In a panic, she had called Benny and begged him to come down from New York. The world would spin around her and small sounds around the house would convince her that someone was breaking in. Her shining knight insisted that detox wasn’t in his wheelhouse and to call him back when she felt better. After, she could come to New York and they could party and hustle unsuspecting men at the chess clubs. Less nauseous, achy, and paranoid. Less depressed. Harry was there though. He showed up at her door with flowers a few days after he knew she’d come back.  
When she had opened the door with 3 day old smudged make up, he figured she had been on a celebratory bender. Beth immediately threw her arms around his neck and sobbed though. After that, he temporarily moved back in with her to help her through the withdrawal period. For countless nights, he comforted her though panic attacks and intense hours of crying. He stayed awake all night playing chess with her during her manic periods.  
Eventually the manic periods led to periods of intense depression. She wanted to sleep endlessly, but nightmares of her mothers deaths, both her birth mother and Almas, woke her up. She started crawling into his bed in the middle of the night. He never complained through all the tears. Or all the times she kicked him once she did fall asleep. When his alarm would go off at 7:30, she would wake up with his arms around her, reluctant to get up for class. After two weeks, he just started sleeping in her bed and occasionally skipping his 9am.  
They never had sex, despite sleeping in the same bed for months and Beths repeated attempts. He would push her away when she tried to kiss him or, if she was being more direct, bat her hand away. He insisted that it wasn’t like the last time.  
“What are you thinking about Beth?” His voice broke her train of thought.  
“Nothing.” she lied, shifting her weight on the ugly brown carpet. The apartment was very uniquely Harry. A record player sat in the corner next to an impressive box of records. A small bookshelf sat caddy corner to it, overflowing with books and a TV that seemed to only play The Twilight Zone. There were no pictures on the walls, which Beth always found strange and impersonal.  
Beth looked up at Harry, noticing his tired eyes and ran her hand through his hair, moving it out of his face. He sighed deeply and looked up at her. She hated that sad puppy dog look he would give her with those big blue eyes. She massaged his head and he closed his eyes, softly moaning.  
“Once the Tylenol kicks in, you’ll feel better I think.”she handed him the cold tea. “You need to drink too.”  
He quickly drank the tea and fell back against the pillow again. Beth went back to rubbing his head. Her eyes trailed down, watching his chest rise and fall. There were small red scratch marks in between the little pink bumps that marred his pale skin. She ran her fingers down his side, stopping at the waistband of his green and blue stripped boxers.  
“Beth, what are you doing?” Harry said with his eyes still closed.  
“Looking to see how bad the spots are.” She answers coyly, her hand still resting on his hip. She slipped her thumb into the waistband.  
“I don’t have any there.” He eyed her hand suspiciously. Beth heard his breathing quicken before he swatted her hand away.  
“It would help me assess what to do to help you.” She replied. “I think oatmeal baths are supposed to help. Calamine lotion.”  
“Matt and Mike dropped that off the other night. It’s under the sink.”  
Beth stood up and walked to the small, dark bathroom, turning on the bathtub faucet before digging under the sink for the oatmeal. She heard Harry get up and look through a closet for a clean towel. He leaned against the doorway.  
“I appreciate the help, but I think I can handle it from here.” His cheeks flushed.  
“I’m enjoying playing doctor.” Beth replied.  
She stood up from where she was trying to dissolve the oatmeal mixture in the water. It had turned the water an ugly, turbid beige. Harry grimaced and continued to stand in the doorway, rubbing his shoulder against wood. Beth quickly crossed the small, dim bathroom to sit on the lid of the toilet. She gestured toward the filling bathtub.  
“I’m not doing this with you here. You can sit outside the door.” He cross his arms. “Leave me with a little bit of dignity.”  
“I’ll close my eyes. Once you’re sitting I can’t see anything. Not that I haven’t already seen it all dozens of times.”  
“Fine.”  
Beth squeezed her eyes shut. She heard Harry toss the towel onto the counter and shuffle out of his boxers. She figured it was safe to open her eyes when the sound of splashing water stopped and the water had turned off. Beth stifled a small laugh. Harry was too tall of this tiny bathtub. He settled on sliding down the back of the tub, leaving his knees exposed. Beth went to sit next to him, leaning against the wall.  
“So, how does this work?” He asked, “do we just sit here?”  
“Yeah, just sit and relax.” She began massaging his head again. He yawned and rested his head on the side of the bathtub.  
“Thank you Beth.” He mumbled.  
She let her hand move from his hair down to his cheek. Light stubble was prickly under her fingers. She smiled, remembering the story of how he received the deep scar on his forehead. She traced along the side of it, picturing an eight year old little Harry chasing his older brother before tripping and hitting his head on the corner of a table. She wondered if she would ever meet him.  
Beth wanted to kiss him. She ran her finger down the bridge of his nose, making him smile.  
“What are you doing?” he asked. He reached up to touch her hand, moving it away from his face. She let her fingertips dangle in the water.  
“I’m just thinking.” She replied.  
“About what?” he shifted.  
“Dinner,” she lied. “I’m getting hungry.”  
“You don’t have to stay, Beth.”  
She touched his shoulder. “But, I want to.”  
She sat up on her knees, steadied herself on the edge of the tub, and kissed him. His lips were as soft and warm as the first time he kissed her in her backyard. She gently bit his lip, then slipped her tongue past his teeth. Beth felt him quietly whine and try to shift. She was expecting him to push her away, but sat up further deepening the kiss. She began to reach in the water, to touch him, but she stopped when he broke the kiss. He looked at her wide eyed.  
“Is that what you’ve been thinking about all night?” He asked quietly.  
“Among other things.” She said, looking down. She wrung out the sleeve of her shirt.  
“Please stay with me.” He stopped. “Not for sex, I just want to sleep next to you again.”  
“I’ll stay as long as you need me to.” She kissed him on the cheek. “I’m going to change my shirt. Can I borrow one?”  
He nodded and Beth stood up, closing the door behind her. In relief for finally being alone, Harry grabbed the towel from the counter and wrapped it around his waist. It did very little to hide his erection. He considered taking care of it quickly, but decided against it. Beth could walk back in at any moment. He brushed his teeth to give him an extra few minutes alone. It was not enough.  
Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and headed to the bedroom. He met Beth in the hallway. She had exchanged her light green turtleneck and black miniskirt for Harry’s grey and yellow plaid flannel shirt. She twirled, lifting her arms over her head, making sure he saw her pink lace underwear.  
“What do you think?” The shirt slipped off her shoulder.  
“The pink and yellow clash.”  
Harry went to his bedroom and dug through the drawers for fresh clothes, pulling out boxers and a white tee shirt and throwing them on the bed. He closed the drawer with his foot and sat down, eventually laying down with his legs dangling off the side. This was his normal routine after a shower, to collapse onto his bed and stare at the ceiling. Enjoying the quiet. He felt a cool hand on his forehead. A soft kiss. He heard the squeaks of someone climbing onto the bed, dragging the blanket from the other room.  
“You know, this is going to be the first time I spend the night here.” She settled on the side of the bed closest to the window. Beth reached over for the thick book on the nightstand. It was a copy of Dune. “I thought you only read books about chess.”  
Harry sat down next to her. “There’s a lot you don’t really know about me.”  
“Oh,” Beth rolled her eyes. “Mr. Mysterious.”  
“Hardly.” He said quietly. “You just never asked and I don’t like to talk about myself.”  
“Fine, tell me something I don’t know.”  
“I hate spiders.” he replied quickly.  
“You hate spiders?”  
“When I was a kid, my dad dumped a bucket of spiders on his face because he thought God told him to. They bit the shit out of him and it scared me.” Beth stared in disbelief. “Before he was a drunk, he was a preacher.”  
Beth continued to stare wide eyed at Harry. Mouth open as if trying to think of a way to respond, but the words couldn’t find their way out.  
“Ok, then how does preachers boy Harry Beltik go on to be a chess master and electrical engineering student.”  
“There’s not much for kids to do in the hollers around Greyson. My grandfather taught me how to play.”  
“How did you end up here?”  
“My mom left my dad when he started pulling crazier stunts. Like, trying to raise people from the dead. We moved to Frankfort when I was 12. She remarried a pretty nice guy.”  
“Do you still talk to your dad?” Beth asked.  
He hesitated. “He died a few years ago.”  
“What about your brother?”  
“He lives in California. We talk every few weeks. We’re not terribly close.”  
“Your mother?”  
“I visit around the holidays. After my grandfather passed, we all sort of grew apart from each other.”  
Beth sat quietly for a few minutes as Harry got dressed. He didn’t seem to care at this point if she watched when he threw the towel in the laundry. She watched tiny goose bumps form on his back as she shivered from still being slightly wet.  
“This is a great angle.” He quickly pulled up his boxers and turned around. “I am just getting the full view.”  
He crawled under the covers next to her. She took him hand, lacing her fingers in his. He scratched the top of his hand.  
“Any other crazy secrets?”asked Beth.  
“Nothing that wild.” He stopped. “I can play the piano and guitar. My mom thought it’d be sweet if my bother and me played for the church.”  
Beth laughed. “No fucking way.”  
“I mean, I’m not Pete Townshend, but it gets the job done.”  
“What job is that? You bring out the guitar when you’re trying to get girls to come over?”  
“No, no.” He smiled wide. That fucking smile. “That’s what the chessboard is for.”  
Beth laughed and playfully pushed him, wrapping her arms around him. She rested her cheek against his shoulder. She liked this; the way his hand felt in hers, knowing that when she woke up he would be there curled around her. She looked around the room, taking in Harry’s semi organized chaos. Notebooks and textbooks were open on his desk, like he had been trying to study or do homework. Piles of books that he couldn’t fit on the small bookshelf could be found in the corners. Articles and pictures of her were pinned to a cork board next to the door.  
“Are you getting tired?” He looked at the clock next to him. “It’s 11.”  
“A little bit.” Beth shifted. “Are you?”  
“Sort of.” He stretched. “I’m more achy than anything. I’m not even as itchy.”  
“Is there anything I can do to help?” She inched closer to him, her nose almost touching his.  
“I can think of a few things.”  
Beth quickly closed the small gap between them before Harry could react. He wove his hand into her hair, pulling her closer. He wondered if she noticed he was quickly getting hard. Beth throwing her leg over him, and pushing him onto his back gave him the answer. She ground her hips against his, causing Harry to curse.  
He began unbuttoning the flannel shirt and sliding it off her shoulders so it fell around her waist. He cupped her breasts, gently pinching her nipples until they pebbled. He dragged his thumb across one, making her buck her hips against his. His erection rubbed against her clit, sending shocks through her.  
“We don’t have to.” He said breathlessly. “I don’t want you to feel we have to have sex.”  
“No, I definitely want to.” She said, stepping around him to step out of her underwear. Harry stared open mouth and slightly out of breath. She remember that look from when he caught her dancing. “You’re doing that thing again. Where you stare.”  
“You’re just, really beautiful.” He said quietly. “I’m a little worried that this is a fever dream.”  
Beth gently kissed him, reaching her hand into his boxers to wrap her fingers around his cock. She used her thumb to spread small beads of pre-cum around the head as she stroked. Harry’s quiet moans broke their kiss. Beth pulled back, smiling and watching as she sat on her heels as he kicked off his boxers.  
“What’s wrong?” His blue eyes filled with sudden concern that he had done something wrong.  
“No,” Beth giggled. “I just like looking at you. You’re very handsome.” She crawled toward him, straddling his hips again and carefully lowering herself onto him. She had missed how he felt inside her, comfortably stretching and filling her.  
“This is new.” Harry panted. “I like this.” Beth rocked her hips slowly, feeling him hit that spot that made her clench around him. He reached up to circle her clit making her tighten around him.  
“I won’t last much longer if you do that.”she mewled. Beths rocking grew erratic before she cried out begging Harry to finish too, as she climaxed. Beth. Beth. Beth I-. She felt Harry twitch inside her, and then warmth. She collapsed forward onto his chest, only rolling next to him after a minute. Harry looked over at her and smiled sweetly. Even her hair a mess and sweaty, she was gorgeous.  
“Next time you’re doing all the work.” Beth said, sitting up to pull the discarded blanket over them. “But that was amazing.”  
Beth laid down facing him. She grimaced, quickly remembering that they hadn’t used one of the condoms from the drawer. Every time she moved she felt more wetness between her legs. Beth snuggled closer to to him, resting her head in his shoulder to bury her face in his neck. She remembered when he left, how she would lay in his bed and cry. She didn’t wash those pillow cases for several weeks.  
“I’m a little sticky.” She smirked. “We need a shower.”  
He didn’t want to move. He loved having her pressed against him. He hoped she felt the same. Harry felt his eyelids getting heavy as he played with her hair.  
“Can it wait a few minutes? I’m enjoying this.”  
“It can wait until the morning.” She said, kissing him one last time before falling asleep.


End file.
